Progressive Breakfast for October 16

Weeks after Hurricane Maria, Puerto Ricans now face a humanitarian crisis from waterborne diseases and toxic runoff from Superfund sites. Why? Because like other victims, they don't have the "complexion for protection" by lawmakers. I know, because the EPA told me so.

Puerto Rico Health Crisis Looms

In Puerto Rico, a daily struggle for water and food. Inside Climate News: “In rural and impoverished areas of Puerto Rico, a new day means a new search for food and safe water as the humanitarian crisis there continues to escalate… People in poor communities hit hard by the hurricane are rationing their food, water and propane, and hospitals are trying to operate on shaky power supplies.”

True Cost of Trump’s Undercutting the ACA

Trump’s new Obamacare killer to cost Uncle Sam $194 billion. Bloomberg: “President Donald Trump is halting some Obamacare subsidies. A big money saver for taxpayers, right? Wrong. The move could actually force the government to dole out almost $200 billion more on health insurance over the next decade. Here’s why: The insurer payouts Trump cut off aren’t the only government funds financing the program. Consumers also can get help with their insurance premiums. When the insurer subsidies are discontinued, those premiums are pushed higher — and because the consumer subsidies are far bigger than those given to insurers, that’s a costly trade.”

Bannon Calls for GOP Insurrection

Steve Bannon’s insurrection might also be an anti-impeachment strategy. New York Magazine: “The Steve Bannon–led campaign to depose Mitch McConnell as Senate Majority Leader is ‘a coalition of populists, constitutional conservatives, and more libertarian types,’ one Bannon ally tells Axios. Alternatively, it ‘could win over a loose coalition of social conservatives, tea-party activists, and values voters,’ another tells CNN. So it is designed to advance literally every faction in the party, including some (populists, who favor nativism and bigger government) diametrically opposed to others (libertarians, who favor the opposite). In other words, the purge has no ideological content whatsoever. This naturally raises the question of why so many Republicans are hell-bent on decapitating an effective legislative tactician who has dutifully carried out the president’s bidding. One answer is that conservatives are purging McConnell because purging is what they do and who they are. The modern Republican Party was created through purges, and it has never stopped.”

Sessions Steps In To Iowa Transgender Case

Aiding transgender case, Sessions defies his image on civil rights. NYT: “The Justice Department has dispatched an experienced federal hate crimes lawyer to Iowa to help prosecute a man charged with murdering a transgender high school student last year, a highly unusual move that officials said was personally initiated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. In taking the step, Mr. Sessions, a staunch conservative, is sending a signal that he has made a priority of fighting violence against transgender people individually, even as he has rolled back legal protections for them collectively.”

More from OurFuture.org:

Trump Drowns the ‘Forgotten Men and Women’ in Swamp Water. Miles Mogulescu: “Trump’s true plan to “drain the swamp” has now become clear: Make the “forgotten men and women” of this nation drink swamp water until they die. Hurricane victims in Puerto Rico are getting sick and dying from drinking polluted water. And now, Trump’s lone-wolf attack on health insurance markets will now make health care unaffordable to millions of the working-class men and women whose votes he used to win the presidency.”